| Welcome to phase2, the website of Sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand Incorporated (SANZ)
World Environment Day 2008 — Achim Steiner's wise words
17 June 2008
New Zealand was the main host of World Environment Day 2008 on 5 June and SANZ's own Executive Director, Wendy Reid, attended three talks given by the remarkable Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Wendy was hugely impressed by Mr Steiner's speeches, each totally different as he tailored his messages to his audiences.
The focus of the day was on solutions and opportunities for countries, companies and communities to 'Kick the habit' and make the transition to a low carbon economy and lifestyle. Mr Steiner described the kind of change needed as 'transformative' and reminded business leaders that those who bet on manifestations of this change (such as renewable energy and low-energy light bulbs) were winning economically.
Mr Steiner also reminded one of his audiences of the illogicality of GDP being the sole measure of progress, citing the example of an oil spill producing economic growth because of all the money spent on the clean up. And he also spoke of the illogicality of shipping a product such French bottled water to New Zealand, alluding to the fact that much of what we currently deem to be sophistication is really just short-sighted and selfish stupidity.
And in an inspiring footnote to his talk at Auckland University, he spoke about 'de-coupling' economic growth from energy usage, citing the example of Denmark where a long term and committed government energy efficiency program has seen Denmark's GDP grow by around 75% in the past 25 years while its energy consumption has remained almost stable. As you will see in this article, this equates to a 40% reduction in 'energy intensity'. Now that is an achievement worth celebrating.
Describing climate change as 'a prism through which we are looking at new ways of running our economies', he posed a salient question: How do we feed 8 or 9 billion people without destroying our future? Wise words indeed from a wise and eloquent leader.
Carbon Neutral by 2020
6 December 2007
SANZ board members, Maggie Lawton and Professor Klaus Bosselmann, are co-contributors to a positive new book about creating a carbon neutral society here in the South Pacific. The book's editors are Niki Harré and Quentin D Atkinson, psychologists from the University of Auckland whose interests in psychological wellbeing led them to tackle this important issue.
 Carbon Neutral by 2020 (Craig Potton, 2007)
NZ should take moral high ground on global warming
26 October 2007
SANZ board member, Professor Klaus Bosselmann, responds to the recent suggestion by the New Zealand Institute that New Zealand adopt a 'fast follower' approach to meeting our Kyoto Protocol commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Full story (New Zealand Herald)
2007 Nobel Peace Price — Congratulations to Dr Jim Salinger
22 October 2007
Congratulations to SANZ board member, Dr Jim Salinger, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Those of you who know Jim will know that through his work for NIWA he has been actively raising awareness of climate change issues for the past thirty years: recognition of the issue has been a long time coming. We thank Jim for sticking to the task and warmly congratulate him and the other New Zealand members of the IPCC.
As reported in the New Zealand Herald, Jim 'was the lead author for the scientific assessment of climate trends in the 2001 IPCC report and was lead author for climate impacts in the Australia-New Zealand chapter of the fourth assessment.'
Full story (New Zealand Herald)
Partnership Agreement: UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD)
12 September 2007
We are pleased to report that last month SANZ signed a landmark partnership agreement with the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO. The Commission and SANZ have agreed to work together to give impetus to the programme of activities within the New Zealand UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
The Commission has empowered SANZ to take responsibility for the coordination and administration of the Decade on behalf of the Commission.
The Agreement includes the following deliverables:
- Finalise NZ UNDESD Strategic Plan
- Develop UNDESD indicators
- Finalise monitoring and reporting framework
- Appoint NZ UNDESD Governance Committee
To achieve these deliverables our approach will be to build on the work of the Decade to date, as well as last year's UNDESD stakeholders' forum. We are currently planning a second stakeholders' forum for later this year.
SANZ Strategy 2007-2014
5 July 2007
Thank you for your feedback on our draft strategy. The strategy has now been revised and ratified by the new Board and has been posted here (151KB PDF) for review. We are now turning our attention to the challenge of implementation and will shortly announce priorities for 2007-2009.
Calculate your ecological footprint
18 June 2007
 Footprint calculators estimate the size of your personal toll (or 'footprint') on the world's ecosystem using averaged national data and information you provide about the things you buy and use. It only takes about 10 minutes and it certainly adds perspective to the issue of living beyond our means. The Ministry for the Environment's calculator is currently being upgraded, but here are a couple of others to choose from.
WastedTV eco-calculator
carboNZero calculators
The purpose of SANZ
The purpose of SANZ and this website is to assist New Zealanders as we all learn how to live wisely and innovatively in the 21st Century.
A new perspective: we are pioneers and we have a job to do
The path of human development has reached a range of constraints and has already begun to change course.
The first phase of global human development was characterized by two goals: survival and growth. But for any species whose habitat is of a finite size, possesses finite resources, and has a finite ability to rejuvinate itself, unqualified growth eventually becomes a barrier to survival. Ironically, our own evolutionary success has inevitably brought us to this crossroads where we find ourselves experiencing real and escalating shortages of the land, air, water, and fuel that we need to survive, let alone prosper. There is no blame or shame — we were always going to reach this point, our 'second phase' of development.
What is the key challenge?
The key challenge we now face is to wisely and innovatively modify our lifestyles before we are pushed into making radical changes because we can no longer access various essential resources. It's certainly not all doom and gloom, there are many good-news stories, but there is an urgency to our need for significant mindset and lifestyle change. The many scientists and other experts in New Zealand and around the world will increasingly help us to better understand the imperatives, but there is no question they exists. In just 50 years our lifestyles here in New Zealand have already been massively affected: the sun has become a health hazard, our 'clean and green' image is daily becoming a less accurate reflection of our precious environment, and water quality and supply can no longer be taken for granted.
Are you really part of the problem?
Absolutely yes. We all are. We consume too much and we produce far too much unnecessary waste, it's as simple as that. We buy products we don't need and upgrade others that work perfectly well, oblivious to the true costs of our habit. We own cars we don't need with bigger engines than we require, and we drive them on unnecessary journeys. And all the while our lives become busier, more cluttered, more wasteful, more expensive and, it seems, more frustrating. We've exhausted 'more'; it's time to do 'better'.
So how should we respond?
The challenges of life in the 21st Century are new, interconnected, and global: our responses must be the same. Ultimately, we need to change. We need to own up to the consequences of our actions. We need to put the environment first because it is an immutable fact that we rely on the environment and not the other way around. We need to develop knowledge of the true effects of our actions. And we need to confidently set about achieving our compulsory task of finding ways to live wiser, more fulfilled lives, in harmony with our environment.
What about the economy?
As we learn to live more wisely and discerningly our needs for products and services will change, and that's what our economy must also do. Whether it evolves to be bigger or smaller is not the issue: we need it to be better. So we have to get our heads around the reality that not all business is good business — there is wasteful, costly commerce that leaves us worse-off, and there are exciting new products and services that we need. It's a new era: opportunities abound.
Can we achieve all this change?
Of course we can, and we have already started. Problem solving and adjusting to new situations are human specialties. So it is the quality of our response that is the challenge, and to improve that quality it makes sense to first properly identify and understand the problems that our current lifestyle is creating for us all.
What's next?
We need a roadmap for our journey. Then we need to learn and participate — to play a part in our collective response to our collective challenge. We invite you to use this website as a tool for developing the skills, knowledge, and wisdom we all need to achieve our ultimate goal: a sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand.
Practitioners
Public, business, government, local bodies
Your comments and suggestions
We hope this website motivates, empowers, and inspires you. It's a work-in-progress and always will be, so keep returning. And please do contact us with your suggestions and ideas.
|
 |
 |
| Three sphere strong sustainability model. |
|
Home
